


AU Explained - NFWMB

by teddybear17



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU explained, Theories & Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-20
Updated: 2018-11-20
Packaged: 2019-08-26 16:23:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16685032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teddybear17/pseuds/teddybear17
Summary: I've gotten questions about aspects of the NFWMB AU. Since people seem interested, and I enjoy superfluous theorizing and world building that are too clunky to be included in the text of my story (and too long for the notes), I've decided to include some of my answers to questions in this companion story.Not at all required reading for NFWMB.





	AU Explained - NFWMB

**Author's Note:**

> This is a response to a question posed by AliciaMirza on the second chapter of NFWMB: Wouldn’t Harry lose his ability of Parseltongue though?
> 
> (I do not claim to be an expert on Harry Potter cannon or Neurobiology - this is an exercise in world building. It's been fun writing about my theories & and exploring my AU world, so let me know if you have other questions, or if there are other aspects of my universe you would like me to discuss!)

Why HP is still a parselmouth post-Deathly Hallows:

I have a couple different headcannons that justify HP keeping this ability in my AU. I haven’t exactly decided which is “true” but, these are my thoughts anyway.

1)           HP was born a parselmouth.

2)            Brain development through his childhood & teen years means that even though he only had the ability because of the horcrux, the ability to use it got written into his neural pathways and he maintained it after the horcrux was gone.

2a)         Along the same vein as #2, Harry’s developing magic assimilated the ability throughout his childhood/teen years. The pattern was introduced by the horcrux, but his magic carried it out/used it, so it got assimilated into his magical core/abilities.

I never liked that the horcrux was taken away and suddenly Harry was “the perfect Gryffindor.” It was a fairly significant portion of his character development in the second book that his community shunned him because he was a parselmouth. I think it is disingenuous to HP & his classmates to have him suddenly drop all the aspects of his character that were introduced by Voldemort's horcrux. Assumedly, after second year, the rest of his classmates still knew that he was a parselmouth and accepted him again anyway (for the time being). I think it’s an important event that obviously all these kids that thought it was a mark of darkness could see it associated with the “Savior of the Wizarding World.” I like that HP having this ability jarred the strict delineation of light/dark that pervaded the wizarding society. Having it gone once the horcrux is gone sends us back into the strict light/dark classification – Harry saved everyone, Harry is a _light_ wizard, Harry can no longer have “dark” abilities. I don’t like that. I don’t like that, in cannon & fannon, it has become a _thing_ that there is this light/dark dichotomy. Cause that’s not real life. In my opinion, it’s an oversimplification, and it takes away the need for critical thinking and opportunities for growth—both from the characters themselves and from the readers.

So, into my justifications:

1)            I guess this enforces what I think being a parselmouth adds to Harry’s character that I described above. That the son of “light” wizards, the “Savior of the Light” could have inherited a “dark” trait works to destroy the association between a trait, an _animal_ , a _group of people_ , and evilness & darkness.

2)            I kind of take a neurobiological approach here (not an expert, just using what I’ve learned from college psych, NOT claiming to be an authoritative source). Basically, neuroplasticity (the ability of the brain to make new connections & synapses) is highest throughout childhood and remains relatively high through the teen years. This is how children learn so quickly. Harry was made a horcrux when he was about a year and a half old. It makes sense that the horcrux influenced his brain development. The ability to speak parseltongue (and other influences on his personality, abilities, etc.) would have been present since that time. Though it is a magical ability, I am assuming that there has to be brain involvement. Following this logic, his brain would have made the connections necessary to allow him communication with snakes. While neuroplasticity is present throughout our lives, it declines with age, and our brains rely on the connections made in childhood to function throughout our lives. Therefore, I find it hard to believe that those connections in HP’s brain would just disappear. You may argue that the magic behind the ability is necessary to make those connections function, and that leads us to…

2a)         Assumedly, childhood is also the time in which a witch/wizard’s magical core is growing and developing. Though the horcrux introduced the parseltongue ability, it had to be Harry’s magic that wielded the ability and allowed it to be functional. Working under the theory that magical core development is similar to brain development, we can conclude that once HP’s magic “learned” how to use the parselmouth ability it wouldn’t just forget it. (Think of the horcrux like a flashdrive plugged into HP’s computer-brain. His brain & magic copied over all the files throughout his childhood. Then the horcrux-flashdrive acted as a wireless relay that gave him access to Voldemort’s computer-brain (the visions). Then when the horcrux-flashdrive was removed, HP’s computer-brain had already copied over all the files, so he retained things like the parselmouth ability, but the wireless relay was cut off, so he couldn’t access Voldie’s computer-brain anymore (also Voldie died…you get my point).)

Furthermore, based on cannon & my AU theories above, you could never really prove whether one or the other is the "truth." He got the horcrux so early, and he probably wouldn’t have had an opportunity to display the ability that early in life, that whether he was born with it or retained it due to brain/magic development becomes kind of an impossible question to answer.


End file.
